Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Need we say any more about the music showcase? All the vert action, chops, bikes and music ya need. We are damn stoked to be bringin' the bands to you Southern California. Tickets will go on sale June 6th and trust us, just wait til' you hear the Rumble in Raleigh lineup. Let the southern sleaze invasion begin...

Saw this trailer over on NME and instantly the film quality and sound seemed to throw me off as its mean to be off hand but done way too well. Upon further inspection its quite easy to tell that this is some high end marketing for a book that has reach a cult level vibe. Maybe yall have heard of the "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" or maybe not. Personally I have heard of the name but don't know the story.

If you have read the book or not is quite irrelevant to my point. Take a listen to the soundtrack of this clip and hopefully we can hear more of it soon. Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Trent Reznor have put together a cover of a well known Zeppelin track that is just smokin'. Have a listen as this song just gets better and better.

Monday, May 30, 2011

The one thing that are we are doomed to repeat is history, if we fail to remember it. For all those that have served our country and paid the largest price, we thank you. Extra special thanks to all of our family that has served this nation since its birth through the good, the bad and the ugly. Take it away Johnny...

Sunday, May 29, 2011

A few years back, probably getting close to four years now, I pulled out some older cds and put them into the player and got busy working for the day. I found myself completely dumb founded and thought how the hell had I slept on one particular cd for a while. Not that I dismissed it, but how the hell was it not in my road trip discs right next to Appetite for Destruction, Avail's - Dixie, Social Distortion's - Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell, Pantera - Vulgar Display of Power and Metallica's - Ride the Lightning and many many more. That cd was by a band named Kilgore that ensnared me with their huge sound and even bigger vocals.

After listening to it several times back to back I figured I should look these dudes up and see if they are still playing. No dice on that end but it turns out they had some other project bands and one in particular was with the singer Jay Berndt in a band called the Brimstone Assembly along with another project called the Revival Preachers. I figured what the hell and emailed them hoping to get some insight into what they were up to these days. Out of a nowhere a friendship was struck online and Jay and I chatted music and eventually started working together when I formed Rusty Knuckles.

Dig into one of his covers from the Brimstone Assembly days, quite hard not to enjoy Ace Of Spades cover.

Do yourself a favor and get out to the monthly open house that Tim Bradham and his compadres put on down in Fayetteville. With the doors wide open and a varying band each month, cold beers are to be had along with views of various race cars under construction, hot rods being built and one bitchin' motorcycle that has been on the lift for months. Click on the link on the lower right to dig into Tim Bradham's Chassis Works and check out this video to get a glimpse into the action.

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Growing up on the central part of the east coast and coming from a family within the waterman community, tales of ships, famous storms and local folk lore were always on hand. My grandfathers favorite reading material was about the sea, as he was a local ship captain and the island where our family originates was a relatively famous pirate enclave originally called Devil's Island. Pirates roamed the Chesapeake Bay and the southern coastline for centuries and went from disrupting shipping lanes during colonial times to becoming Oyster Pirates that my grandfather had to deal with. We also had a few of them in the family, as making a living didn't come easy being watermen.

We have all heard of the most famous pirate of the Atlantic waters, who just so happens to have made his last stand right off the coast of Moorhead City, here in North Carolina. On that fabled day that the British were finally able to defeat the mighty Blackbeard his head was cut off and his body was thrown overboard. Legend states that his body swam around the ship three times trying to find a way back on board, along with a few folks seeing a headless body searching for its head. His haunts of the North Carolina water ways have inspired many including yours truly.

This past week one of the anchors from the Queen Anne's Revenge was recovered off the coast and it should open up a litany of other finds on the wreck, after the ship sank in 1718. After three hundred years his legend still remains with us. Good or bad the world is driven by folks of character and those are the ones whose stories become legend inspiring things such as Rusty Knuckles. One of our main logos was created after a sword while thinking on pirate tales and mixed with modern mechanics. We can thank someone such as Blackbeard for several ideas, including the artwork penned for the first Revenge Run which followed Blackbeard's last stand with the British. Quite soon, we may just have something cooked' up for our brethren in the hills with that tasty Mountain Dew recipe otherwise known as Shine.

Get some items on sale and enjoy the Memorial Day weekend. For all those that have served the good ol' USA we thank you. If you are uncertain about the history of Memorial Day it was started as a remembrance for all the soldiers who fought during the Civil War and was extended after World War I in honor Americans who have died in all wars.

Friday, May 27, 2011

Dearest friends, miscreants and scumbags, for those of you about to rock, please don't forget your cameras, cell phones or whatever it takes to send in images and video from past and present shows. We and the bands need your support to help keep the flame lit for this underground scene we call home. Huge shout out to Tams Higgins for mailing in a usb drive with footage of Flat Tires, Hellbound Glory and Ronnie Hymes jamming with JB Beverley. We will post as much as we can and put up the best footage.

Sound sometimes doesn't turn out due to cameras small microphone, which allows all the tones to sound like mud. If ya really want the right sound from live shows, ask Mr. Soundman to give you a feed from the main sound board and put it on disc or usb drive. You might have to buy him/her a few drinks but it will be worth it and we will reward your good deeds. Also, the show in which the imagery stems from was a big show put on by our good pals over in the Road Devils Car Club. Pat Brown went out of his way to put on one hell of a shindig so we can't thank him enough along with the folks in Justified Defiance and LedSled Customs for rollin' over to the show.

For future submissions just send any content over to our post office box right here:

Leave it to the Boys From Brutalsville to be cult heroes to the masses. Not only did they make this legendary list but they are surrounded by great company such as Bowie, Alex Turner, Matt Bellamy, Syd Barret and forty five others. More on this issue below and you can also get it as a digital download.

It's a Cult Heroes special, in which some of the biggest names in music - Bowie, Alex Turner, Matt Bellamy etc. - tell us about their favourite cult icons. Yep, the freaks and oddballs who never made it big, but whose influence was immense. We're proud to have Syd Barrett as our cover star for it...

Elsewhere in the mag we've got the latest on Noel Gallagher's solo album, speak to Frank Turner about his dream of 'Being Freddie Mercury", and check out The Strokes live...

Also we join Bombay Bicycle Club in the studio to find out about their new album, take a long hard look at Lady Gaga's 'Born This Way', and tag along with Wild Beasts on the road, in the process getting the low down on who's got the biggest penis in the band ...

Plus reviews, the week's essential gig guide, and loads of other stuff that will make you a WINNER.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

This is directly from the folks behind Cafe Racer TV along with Discovery Channel...

"Alright our trusty ton-up brothers and sisters, you asked for it and you got it! Cafe Racer TV Season 2 is set to air on the following dates. Keep an eye on the Facebook page/BLOG and your hand on the throttle to make sure you’re not left behind when the record drops this June! More details to follow on builders and show content but to name a few, your favorites from Dime City Cycles, Lossa Engineering, Garage Co and Greg Hageman will be back with some great new project bikes! Go go Cafe Racer!"

Its always cool when bands get national recognition and are able to be featured in commercials for the instruments they are known best for. Congrats to CherryBomb of the Green Lady Killers on being in the latest commercial for Guitar Center. By the way, rumor on the street is they are playing the Ink & Iron Fest in Long Beach so get out to the show and see what drumming is all about.

Monday, May 23, 2011

For all of our peeps down under, get yourself a copy of Fuel Magazine issue no. 7. Not only is this one of the best looking mags out there for all things motorized but it has some of the best photography around. High quality and chock full of character with solid design, we dig it!!!

"Fuel Magazine issue 07 ~ 'The Customs Issue ' is now available to order. It's a celebration of the great customs cars that we have in Australia, by featuring 6 of them, an awesome bike build, two fine artists and some cool event coverage, all in a 132 page glossy, colourful package.

Subscribers, as usual, get their copies early. Subs will ship out next Friday, and general customers copies will go out the week after that, on 3rd June. This issue will be on Australian news stands on 10th June.

Scroll down and have a browse of what we have lined up in this issue.. not all of which is shown here. And don't forget, we're having a launch party to celebrate making it to number 7, so come by for some hot Rancho Deluxe coffee.

For three straight years Chris Callen and all the folks involved with Cycle Source Magazine have put on one hell of a shindig. What makes us like the Big Mountain Run better than any other event is simply that you do whatever the hell you want to do. The campsite is in a remote corner of Tennessee right next to the Hiwassee River so getting there is a long road into the hills along with it being nestled between the river and the railroad tracks also means that noise is never an issue. You can assume that everyone takes full advantage of this with burnouts, firecrackers, live music and various other things that go boom, making for the best damn biker party of the year.

We started out planning on meeting around noon this past thursday and motoring on over the 411 miles to the campsite, well that didn't quite work out. About 35 miles into the ride Brooklyn Joe's primary decided to explode and there we were stuck on the side of the road. A bolt had backed out into the primary chain and ripped it all into shreds and also cracking off a huge chunk of his primary cover, so Joe's bike was shot from the start. Not to let this deter us, we tore off and got the brand new Rusty Knuckles company van and picked up the bike, swapped him out with our cafe racer and now had a bike for Joe up in the hills to roll around on along with a supply wagon.

Finally rollin' into the campsite by about 3am and cold as all hell, we quickly found out that a lot of folks showed up this year for the festivities. With bikes strewn about everywhere, fire pits still blazing it was a welcome site to be back up in the hills. Over the next few days we turned Sal's bike into a yarder to haul trees and firewood, heard about a naked dude fighting another guy who invaded his tent, sampled fresh batches of tasty moonshine, blazed bikes through river streams, rode motorcycles on a halfpipe, witness guys lining up to be dragged behind bikes on stone and dirt, bought shitloads of fireworks from an old lady that loves things that go boom and still thinks its the 1920's, partied down with all the fellas in Led Sled, Justified Defiance, the Haints and many more while also riding a thousand miles with a shit eating grin thinkin' on how much more mayhem we can get into at next years Big "Mayhem" Run. Thanks to all who put on the Big Mountain Run, see ya next year and yes this time we are burning everything down with more fireworks and bigger explosions. Next year we are fishing the creek with ordinance. Will also be posting video here soon once we go through it all.